This week, we wanted to try to capture for you just how great Raise Our Voice was.

But instead, we’re going to turn it over to an audience member who wrote to us after the event:

My wife and I were fortunate to have been invited to the “Raise our Voice” event. I was moved to write my impressions:

Preparing for the March 28 No Kings March…

We came…like early ripples we came, ripples of the wave of resistance to come on the 28th, ripples inspired by courageous Minnesotans. Ripples came, to the heart of Texas, to the heart of Austin, to the heart of First Baptist.

Raising our voices, "Takin’ it to the streets” we sang. And we were young, and the very young, and the old, and the very old.

The feeble came, the blind came, the hard of hearing too. Some with rusty old joints, some with strong bodies and new. All strong of mind, and of conviction too.

We all brought our scars, of oppression, of battering by oligarchs, and the boots of the fascists.

At night in the dark we were stars and shone bright as we shared our dreams, of love for all, of liberty for all, of opportunity for all. We swayed and we rocked, and we sang our hearts out, and clapped, and we cheered.

Embraced by the wide sky of Texas we showed up as we could. Old friends met new friends, in solidarity too.

Deep in the south, deep in the heart of Texas, in the heart of Austin, in the heart of First Baptist, all peoples, all faiths. One beautiful, audacious, tenacious multitude of souls, committed to tomorrow, to liberty, and free from rapacious greed, free from oppression, in the land of the brave, in the home of the oppressed, that again will be free.

The embers of joy were on fire that night!

Best regards, Manual A. Garcia

What a lovely reminder of why this event mattered: because art is profound and powerful. Like ripples, indeed.

We are so grateful to our POWER TRIO of leaders who made it happen — in five short weeks! — Carey Brett, Shannon Stewart, and Ashley Unbehagen.

We’re also eternally grateful to Craig Hella Johnson and everyone at Conspirare for saying YES to this idea, and then running with it past any goal we ever could have set. (Did you know that Craig himself wrote all the poetry that was read that night?!) And we’re grateful to all of you who donated to make this vision come to life. And all of you who were there and raised your voice!

You can see all of Craig’s poetry, his rewritten lyrics to “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” and the lyrics to all the songs we sang together here.

Whew. Let’s do it again soon!

The people have spoken!

At our meeting this week, members of the FORWRD-TO-WIN committee shared the results of months of work, analyzing candidates and districts looking for a good fit for FORWRD to “adopt.”

They presented their two finalists: Bobby Pulido in District 15, and Katy Padilla Stout in District 23. They did a proper SWOT analysis for each candidate, giving us a clear picture of each race.

Bobby is, undoubtedly, more likely to win. He’s a well-known Grammy-nominated musician with 8 million followers on Instagram. After the GOP incumbent remarked that the race was “not about who you would want to play at your niece’s quinceañera,” Bobby seized the opportunity. Now he’s offering to attend quinceañeras across the district, where he’s connecting with voters and benefiting from the organic social media reach of the attendees.

Katy, by contrast, is a child welfare attorney, former elementary school teacher, and mom of four, with fewer than 1,500 followers on Instagram. She decided to run once the whole sordid Tony Gonzales scandal broke open. “I just couldn’t allow him to represent my children, or our values, or the people of TX-23,” she explained.

Her opponent is a 30-year-old YouTuber who moved to Texas in 2021. We’ll tell you more about this cosplay cowboy in the future, because he provides what one might call a target-rich environment. Mostly, he seems like an unserious person who has never held a job with any responsibility. Of course he’s endorsed by Trump.

If we were true to our original mission to “adopt a WINNER,” we would probably pick Bobby — because he’s more likely to win.

But … (drumroll please) … we picked Katy!

Here’s why: Bobby’s got an extensive network already. We would be one additional arrow in his quiver. Meanwhile, Katy is in real need of more arrows. She needs money and attention and volunteers and support.

And HERE WE ARE. Ready to help make history with the woman who said YES!

(Plus, look at that guy. He shouldn’t be within 100 miles of a leadership position.)

As part of this work, we’ll also be working to launch a chapter of FORWRD in San Antonio, so we can build a larger network leading into 2028.

This project will have multiple offshoots and tentacles. A concert in Marfa? Pachanga in Uvalde? Merch designed by one of the area’s many successful artists?! The sky’s the limit!

Right now, let’s all do two things:

If you’ve got an immediate idea that you know you want to run with, let us know! As specific plans develop, we’ll share them with you … and we’re hoping this can be a BIG group effort. We are VERY enthused by the idea of building an invisible network of women across the district to defeat Brandon Herrera.

One thing we do know is that we’ll have a special QR code for donations so we can track our impact — we’ll send it to you as soon as we’ve ironed out all the back-end pieces.

Let’s roll up our sleeves and send a decent human who shares our values to Washington!

What are you doing next Saturday, April 18th? The Blue Bunny Brigade is organizing a statewide caravan to the Dilley Detention Center, where more than 6,200 children have been imprisoned since January 2025.

We’re showing up from every corner of the state to demand:

The Austin team will meet at Wildflower Church in South Austin at 8:30 a.m. to decorate our cars, consolidate rides, and receive a blessing of the caravan from the pastoral staff before we head south.

If you’ve been watching what’s happening at Dilley and wondering what you can do, this is IT — a coordinated peaceful caravan of moms and Singing Resistance groups. BONUS: Superstar-in-the-making Katy Padilla Stout will be there! And probably lots of other candidates and elected officials.

Coordination is happening on Signal, but you can also send us an email and we’ll make sure you get looped in. Road trip!

For Friday, April 3rd: Keep the Momentum Going!

💜= FORWRD member recommended

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